August 28, 2008

UK bans iPhone ad

The iPhone has been advertised on the TV for a while now, but it seems that these adverts are now to be banned because the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has deemed them to be misleading.

Complaints were made about the adverts claims that the iPhone gives the user access to all parts of the internet, but this is not possible because the iPhone does not support Java or Flash, which are essential to view some websites.

ASA noted Apple’s argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail, but considered in its deliberation that the claims “You’ll never know which part of the internet you’ll need” and “all parts of the internet are on the iPhone” implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety.

“We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website,” the watchdog said in a statement. “We concluded that the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone.”

Source [Apple Insider]